


By Any Other Name

by iammyownqueen



Series: Garrick Family Fluff [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bart's name is really long, Embarrassed Bart, Embarrassment, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Fluff, Garrick Family, Gen, He doesn't cry in this one I promise, I made it longer whoops, Imagine his school id lol, Let Bart be happy with his family plz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:19:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22220170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iammyownqueen/pseuds/iammyownqueen
Summary: A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.  But Bart was not a rose.
Relationships: Bart Allen & Jay Garrick & Joan Garrick, Jay Garrick/Joan Garrick
Series: Garrick Family Fluff [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608235
Comments: 3
Kudos: 60





	By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blitzpie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blitzpie/gifts).



> I had no beta whoops but I also read it like, 20 times so sorry for any mistakes. Also did you know Bart's first name is 11 letters long? Wow.

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. But Bart was not a rose. Slave number 11556 and Bart Allen were different people, different entities entirely. The neat little tattoo nestled on his left wrist may disagree, but it was true.

He preferred the name his mother had given him when he was young. She had whispered it into his ear during the dark cold nights, when even the Reach Guards were asleep.

“The Reach do not know the truth, my little trooper. They do not know who you are. You are not 11556. Your name is Bartholomew Henry Allen the Second. You were named after your grandfather, the Flash. He would be very proud of you, if he could see you now.”

He wasn’t so sure of that. 11556 was nothing. Bart Allen was everything. Would his grandfather be proud, seeing 11556? He didn’t think so. He hadn’t done anything to be proud of. He kept his head down. He flinched when the guards taunted him. He let them hurt him. He could never do anything right.

But that was 11556. That was not Bart Allen. Bartholomew Henry Allen II was different. He took pride in the way he stood. He looked people in the eyes. He followed his grandfather's legacy and became a hero. He smiled.

He loved being an Allen. He loved his grandparents! They were kind and approachable. He loved seeing himself in them, though he resembled his mother more than his father. His smile and eyes matched his grandfathers. His jawline came from his grandmother. He inherited his mother’s nose and cheekbones, along with her thick, brownish-red hair, not that the Allens could see that yet.

He loved how Barry made bad puns and winked and him every time he made Iris groan and roll her eyes with his stupidity. He loved how Iris secretly loved the puns, and laughed under her breath when she thought no one was looking.

He loved being an Allen, but something was missing. He had noticed that most people shared their last names with their parents, and others that they lived with. He loved being an Allen, but he didn’t live with them. It felt strange. He loved the Garricks. He loved living with them. He loved how Joan taught him how to knit, and cooked wonderful foods in portions fit for two speedsters. He loved how Jay was quiet, but had a firm and reassuring presence. He was always there with a smile or a laugh and a word of wisdom.

It was stupid really. He wasn’t a Garrick and he should be okay with that. But he wasn’t. He wasn’t sure what got into him when he did it. It was stupid and embarrassing. He hadn’t even noticed he was doing it at first, but before he knew it, his math notebook was covered. He had been absentmindedly scribbling in it, too bored to do his math homework, when his mind began to wonder. 

He looked at his notebook in horror, and a strange sense of pride.

_ Bart G Allen. Bart Garrick Allen. Bart Allen Garrick. Bart Garrick. Bartholomew Allen Garrick. _

He had absentmindedly filled an entire page with different variations of his name. All of them had some variation of “Garrick” added to it. He felt a hot blush rise to his cheeks. He moved to throw out the page, but he couldn’t bring himself to crumple it up. It was foolish to even think about. He wasn’t their  _ son. _ He was just some kid who had nowhere else to go.

_ No.  _ He was much more than that, and he knew it. He could be living at the watchtower, or with his grandparents, but he had a home at the Garricks instead. But to think of himself as their  _ son,  _ that was taking it a bit far. But still, no matter how he tried to convince himself that he was being irrational, he couldn’t bring himself to throw out the paper.

Instead, he took the sheet and laid it side by side with the math homework he had been procrastinating. He looked over the names several times before writing one neatly on the top of his paper.  _ Bart G. Allen. _ It was subtle enough that his teachers wouldn’t question it. If anything, they would assume it represented his middle name. The Garricks probably wouldn’t even see it. They did help him with his homework on occasion, but he doubted that they would notice something as small as that. No one would know. But he knew, and that made him happy. He threw out the paper and worked on his math homework with a smile on his face.

It had been weeks since Bart had changed the way he signed his name, and it had been going well. His teachers had not noticed. If they did, they hadn’t said anything to him about it. Not even the Garricks had noticed. Until they did.

He had an English paper that was due the next day. It was supposed to be typed and printed, but he liked to do the rough draft on paper first. When he first came to the past, his handwriting and spelling were that of a kindergarten student, much to his embarrassment. Now, after months of work and practice, his writing skills were that of a second grade student. Writing his paper by hand meant that Joan could read it and correct his spelling before he typed it on his computer. When he handed the essay to her, she looked at it in confusion for a moment before she spoke.

Her eyes flicked over the paper before asking, “What does the G stand for?”

Bart’s face felt hot. “Nothing don’t worry about it!” he yelled, too fast to be causal.

“What does _what_ stand for?” Jay asked, walking over to the kitchen to join them. Bart’s face grew hotter.

_ No no no no no nope. _

Joan looked confused as her eyes flicked between his beet red face and the name he had written on the page. Then, she let out a small chuckle as she understood.

“It stands for Garrick, doesn’t it?” She said, smiling.

He hid his face in his hands and let out an embarrassed groan.

She laughed again, and he felt as if his spirit left his body.

“Joanie, stop laughing, can’t you see the kid’s embarrassed?” Jay scolded.

“Embarrassed? Who’s embarrassed?” Bart said, his voice muffled from his hands. He had tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore everything that had just happened.

“Your face is redder than a tomato, kiddo.” Jay said with a smirk.

“Ugh,” Bart said, not looking up.

“He’s right sweetheart, I’m sorry for laughing,” Joan admitted. “You don’t need to be embarrassed, I think it’s sweet.”

Bart did not move from his flustered position. “Is that why you were laughing?” He asked in dismay.

He felt Joan’s hand on his shoulder.

“Sweetie, I was laughing because it’s adorable. I love that you want to use our name, I think it’s very sweet.”

“Are you trying to make him less embarrassed or more by calling him adorable” Jay asked. Joan elbowed him playfully in the ribs.

Jay slid into the chair next to him and smiled. “Bart, if you want to use our family name, you should. You’re a part of this family now too. It’s yours, if you want to use it.”

“Really?” Bart asked, facing Jay.

“Really.” He said.

“And you don’t have to hide it or make it subtle either. You should be proud of your name, especially the parts you choose for yourself.” Joan said, smiling reassuringly at him.

“I like being an Allen too, though.”

“Oh honey, you won’t ever have to change that.” Joan said reassuringly.

“Yeah,” Jay added, putting his arm around his shoulders. “You could hyphenate, like Iris. Or keep it as an initial if that’s what you really want to do. Whatever you choose to do, we can help you get it changed officially.”

"I- thank you." Bart said, gratefully.

"Of course sweetheart," Joan said, as Jay squeezed his shoulders in a hug.

Bart smiled at himself and mentally began thinking of that piece of paper, and the names he had written weeks ago.

A week later, he was officially Bartholomew Henry Allen-Garrick II on every important document and system that held his information. Even his school records had been changed accordingly. This time, his teachers did notice that his name had changed. Some had even asked to speak with him before class to confirm with him what had been changed in the system. Even Mrs. Herring, his english teacher and a stickler for calling people by their “Proper Names” had switched from calling him Mr. Allen to Mr Allen-Garrick.

He felt like he was walking on air for days afterwards. The funny thing was, nothing had changed. He wrote his name differently, and sometimes teachers called him by his new last name, instead of calling him Bart. Yet, it was everything. It made him feel more at home with the Garricks. If he loved living with the Garricks before, than there was no word for how he felt now.

No, Bart was not a rose. He was not 11556. He was not even Bartholomew Henry Allen II. He was Bartholomew Henry Allen-Garrick II. And by that name, was life the sweetest.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to include that his school ID would be so long can you even imagine? Even if it was just Bartholomew Allen-Garrick like yikes. I'm not 100% sold on the ending but I also really wanted to post it anyway so, enjoy.


End file.
